We Might See ‘The Martian’ Extended Cut Later This Year

Ridley Scott‘s extended cuts can be somewhat hit or miss. The longer versions of American Gangster and Robin Hood, for example, mostly just added more minutes to the running time. Neither version proved to be the Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut, a fantastic cut that contains all the nuances lost in the theatrical version.

Last year we heard rumblings about an extended cut of The Martian, and it’s been confirmed that later this year we might see Scott’s longer version of the adaptation.

Around the release of the critical and box office hit, a deleted scene made its way online, featuring Mark Watney (Matt Damon) discussing the “Mark Watney syllabus.” Since the scene featured the lovable Mark Watney, of course it was a charming clip, but you could see why it got cut.

The Martian moves along at a pretty quick pace. All the key characters are fleshed out. And Ridley Scott and screenwriter Drew Goddard managed to keep building tension over the two-and-a-half-hour narrative. It’s an excellent movie as is, but if you want to see more of Watney’s struggle to survive, then Fox has you covered.

The Digital Bits recently attended a forum at the Fox lot, called “The Journey to Mars 101.” The outlet confirmed with the studio that an extended cut is currently in production at Fox. It’s currently not on their release schedule, but there’s a good chance we’ll see the special-edition Blu-Ray later this year.

In an interview with Collider, Scott confirmed one of his earlier cuts was around 20 minutes longer than the theatrical version. Here’s what he had to say:

It was two hours and 40 minutes. All the cuts we do our pretty well put together, even with temp music and a good soundtrack. That said, the film was too long at two hours and 45, but it was enjoyable. It easily could be a Blu-ray alternative version. Funnily enough, I was sad to see go the inevitable question, as we got intimate details about how you grow food and what do you use for fertilizer, you have to ask the question: when he’s on the road, how and when does he do the necessary? So I made this beautiful self-inflated tent, which is an airlock, so that daily he could go in there. With baby wipes, he cleans himself the best he could and does whatever he has to do. That’s a good one I miss; it just tells you how. Even at the end of the day, when you see him in the rocket at the end, has he gotten scurvy? Absolutely. Is he melting down? Are his organs being affected by his lack of a more efficient diet? Absolutely. That’s why he’s scarred, marked, and sawed, like a baby rash.

Ridley Scott added he misses those more grueling details, but apparently for some viewers, the sequences were a little too difficult to watch. There are a few other scenes missing, of course, but that’s clearly what the director is most excited to see go on the Blu-ray. Admittedly, paying for a double-dip is never exactly fun. There have plenty of “special editions” that have felt like nothing more than a cheap cash grab. We shouldn’t expect that from a Ridley Scott film, though, since most of his special editions are packed with fantastic, fly-on-the-wall making-of docs and all sorts of informative features.